The Dillon tribune., 1887-06-03
A DAY Pm N LAY.
A strell Among the Flowers and biros
Of MOntanN.


Our own poet Bryan says:
ITO him who in the love Of Nature no'os
omcunion with her Visible iorms'
She speaks various language;
So Ne will zee what she WILL
say to Us this lovely May day. ~
the little "roan" and l start 0"
our journey we zee bright red spot y" the
distance and, going uP to It, d''cove' :.
bunch Of Indian pinks, - We "sed 20 Cali
them In early days, although oosa"''s' 'ay
they are not flowers At all, ~ they have no
stamensl A. though we cared whe'hes
they had or not. Next We come to some
bsieh, yellow flowers, (name o"kno"")
then the low, yellow blossoms OF the
poison weed which are scattered every
where; but the prettiest Of the ye'lo"
flowers, nov In bloom, are the dandeltons;
they calf to mind the good mothers IN
junction, that not one Of us should 60
bar efoot until . dandelion was found In
blossom. Another early flower l. email,
purple one, with blossom similar to the
garden pea, and stays close to mother
earth; next come the wild pinks, or sweet
Williams, ~ some call them, and they are
fragrant ~ we'll ~ pretty, - the boys and
girls, who gather then BY the handful''
can .e.,ify. The clover is nice and green
bu. no blossoms are visible yet.
A solitary killdeer rune ahead Of ", and
by his shrill cry and disturbed manner !;
one would think that his mate, with her
nest Of eggs, was not far away; but here
we are at Mrs. Magpie's nest and instead
Of the eggs, there 10 whole ne'tfu' OF little
black and white brides, but they lie very
low, 50 we'll pass them BY and set into
the thick Of .he willows where the DIR is
full, Of music, but il takes keen ear to dis
tinguish each bird's voice, a they sing
their little songs. Loudest Of all I" the
monotonous, notes of the robin; then the
song sparrow, that has been nearly
month with us. Its notes are more con
tiauous than the others, and sounds some.
thing like canary; but It can casil. be
distinguished as It sits on the fence, or
low ~illow, and sings hour sfter 'ur; ''s
colors are brown above and white below
one shading into the ".her-and Is about
six inches in length. The chipping spar
row looks something like It. excepting thai
it is smaller, and has quite a feeble voice
but it uses It early and late.
Here is . small bird, hopping from
bough 10 bough SO quickly that one car
hardly see what It is, but when 1t begins
to sing "chickadee," then the truth IL out
aud the bird books call 1t the black.cappee
Utmouse; with crown and nape, chin ane
throat black, separated BY white; browr
above, white below with wings and tai
| more or less whi.ish edged; length from
FIVE to eigh: inches. Some Of them stay
here all winter-perlaps 10 keep thei
honesteads or preemptions from being
jumped, as the land ,nen say. A li,tl'
bird that came around our doors, during
the late snow. storm, was the white
crowned sparrow; there are three stripe
Of white, and four Of black over the eye
and running back to the nape Of the neck
the rest OF the body brownish drab q
there Il such color) merging into whit
underneath. We saw one Of their nest
once, and It looked As though Nature ha
formed it with the grasses and flowers tina
were growing above It, and not mar
to show that bird had been there
unless the eggs were proof, but the li.tl
sparrow made such fuss, over strange
meddling with her joy, tha: hasty re're'
was taken; with these birds came the rec
polled linnct--a small brown bird, with
rcd cap, a pinkish bill and black feet; tn
bird is about live inches in length, and
more OF a winter bird in the Eastern stat'
than here, but then he could easily mi
take our spring tor winter \ little brow
bird aies tantalizingly around, but will n
hold still long enough to be classified; b
here sits solitary dove on The fence, =,
a. it is such an unusual thing to see o'
alone, We are led to think that his mate
busy with her household affairs, or else
Is one OF the extras cf the tribe.
The blackbirds are on all sides Of us a,
bring to mind the FIRST pathological less
). learned by the writer in Montana; sitti
u by my window, wondered what all tho
little brown. birds were doing with
blackbirds, until l learned that they w
Is the mothers OF the flock, and that tn
e young ones kept their color, more m le